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Canada's First Commune


Location
The County of Lambton - Sarnia
At the back fence behind Bright's Grove Public School on Hamilton Road across from Wildwood Drive, 1 block north of Lakeshore Road (County Road 7)


Photographer
Alan L Brown
Posted
September 19, 2004

Text from the Plaque
In 1829 Henry Jones of Devon, England, a retired purser in the Royal Navy, brought a group of more than 50 emigrants from the United Kingdom to this area where he established a settlement on a 1,000 acre tract of land on Lake Huron. An early supporter and dedicated follower of Robert Owen, the well-known British social reformer, Jones named the settlement "Maxwell" and organized the community on the basis of common ownership and collective living. The settlers built a large log house with the community kitchen, and dining room but separate rooms for each family. A school and storehouse were added. Within a few years, however, disappointing harvests and the burning of the log house led the colonists gradually to abandon the enterprise.

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